Pediatric patients and their families recently joined artist and designer Edin Rudic in creating a new interior wall design for the Food for Life program in the Mount Sinai Health System’s Clinic for Inherited Metabolic Diseases. Mr. Rudic donated his services to create the new design located in the reception area of the Medical Genetics Clinic. It incorporates a high-definition screen display of patient photos, and specially coated walls on which children can draw, adding fun to their hospital visits.

There are more than 42 million adolescents between the ages of 10-19 in the United States. Worldwide one in six people is a teenager. As recently noted by the World Health Organization, “Promoting healthy practices during adolescence, and taking steps to better protect young people from health risks are critical for the prevention of health problems in adulthood, and for countries’ future health and social infrastructure.” In other words, if we want to keep our communities healthy, teen health is essential.

Since the mid-20th century, the health field has recognized the unique needs of adolescents and their right to developmentally appropriate services that openly address the health and behavioral realities of teen life. Today, adolescent medicine is an established field as a sub-specialty of pediatrics. MDs with training in pediatrics, family medicine, or internal medicine can enter adolescent medicine fellowship programs.

Top prospects in this year’s National Football League draft stopped by Kravis Children’s Hospital at Mount Sinai on Thursday, May 8, the first day of the draft. They delighted pediatric patients with smiles, NFL goody bags, and visits to their rooms and to The Zone, a therapeutic and educational play area.

More than 700 attendees showed their support for children’s environmental health at The Mount Sinai Medical Center’s sixth annual Greening Our Children luncheon, held on Monday, May 20, at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich in Connecticut.

Proceeds from the event—which featured a guest appearance from actress and author Jessica Alba—will be used to support Mount Sinai’s Children’s Environmental Health Center (CEHC) and the Laboratory for Molecular Environmental Chemistry at Mount Sinai. The CEHC and laboratory are led by Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, Dean for Global Health, the Ethel H. Wise Professor of Community Medicine, and Professor of Pediatrics; and Robert O. Wright, MD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, and Pediatrics, at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.